‘Healthy Housing Foundation by AHF’ to announce its purchase of the
former Sunset 8 Motel in the heart of Hollywood, which it will repurpose
as transitional housing for low-income individuals and families, with
priority offered to individuals with chronic health conditions.

Move follows the Foundation’s October purchase of the Madison Hotel,
a 220 room SRO hotel on Skid Row in Downtown L.A. in October with plans
to also prioritize that housing for those with health needs.

January 25, 2018 08:50 AM Eastern Standard Time

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On the day (and night) that Los Angeles County concludes its annual
three-day count of the homeless, a group of advocates affiliated with
the ‘Healthy Housing Foundation by AHF’ will host a press conference Thursday,
January 25, 2018 at 10:00 AM at 6516 Sunset Boulevard (the former
Sunset 8 Motel) in Hollywood to announce its acquisition of the 27-room
motel1 as well as plans to repurpose the facility as
transitional housing for low-income individuals and families, with
priority placement offered to individuals with chronic health conditions.

The move is part of a community-based effort to address the exploding
housing and homelessness crisis in Los Angeles. The acquisition and
transformation of the Sunset 8 to transitional housing follows AHF’s
purchase of the Madison Hotel2, a 220 single-room-occupancy
(SRO) hotel on Skid Row in Downtown L.A. in October 2017. Healthy
Housing Foundation by AHF is renovating and upgrading the Madison as
well and will also prioritize those housing units for individuals with
chronic health conditions. No Madison tenants have been or will be
displaced or evicted in that transition and renovation process.

“The homeless crisis in Los Angeles is a crisis, one that
requires an across the board, ‘all hands on deck’ response rather than
the well-intended, but sclerotic government effort we are witnessing by
L.A. City Hall and County officials,” said Michael Weinstein,
President of AHF. “The count, now, nearly 58,000 homeless individuals,
reflects a staggering twenty-three
percent increase just last year. These numbers—and more important,
these faces and lives—dictate that every possible type of housing be
explored and pursued: tents, tiny houses, reused city buildings and
especially, old motels. As such, Healthy Housing Foundation by AHF and
our partners are proud to announce the acquisition of the Sunset 8 as
well as our plans to repurpose this facility into transitional housing
for individuals, families and children, with a particular focus on
housing those with chronic health conditions.”

UN Monitor on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights
Blasts L.A. Response to Homeless CrisisIn early
December, Philip Alston, special rapporteur for the United
Nations’ monitor on extreme poverty and human rights, toured L.A.’s Skid
Row as part of a national tour to investigate “… whether persistent
poverty undermines the human rights of the most vulnerable citizens in
the United States,” and report on the U.S. homeless situation. He
and the U.N. issued a pointed preliminary report
on his findings a few days later. According to a Los
Angeles Times article (12/15/17) on the visit and report, Alston
said that, “ … political will created the hundreds of encampments
that he saw lining the streets of Los Angeles, adding that the country
is rich enough to end homelessness.” The paper also reported that,
“ ‘Los Angeles is lagging behind other cities in attacking its
homelessness problem,’ Alston said.”

Costs of Newly-built Low-income Housing in
California & in Los Angeles; also L.A.’s Trailer PlansLos
Angeles City and County officials are clearly having difficulty
grappling with the scope of the homeless crisis as it continues to
escalate. However, given the magnitude of the issue in L.A.—and the
external scrutiny from as respected a body as the U.N.—much more must be
done to adequately address the crisis. Here are some facts that
officials and the community should pay attention to when addressing
housing and homelessness:

“The homeless population in Los Angeles County was found to be 57,794
people this year (2017) a 23% jump over 2016.” (N.Y.
Times, 9/29/17
also, page #3, “Of Interest” Sunday NYT, 10/1/17)

$332,000:“New affordable units
in California cost an average of $332,000, which limits the
amount of housing that can be built, Gov. Jerry Brown noted in a
budget summary this year.” (L.A. Times, 10/06/17—Emily
Alpert Reyes)

$425,000: In the City of Los
Angeles, the average cost of a new affordable housing unit.

The cost per affordable housing unit for units under Ballot Measure
HHH projects is $434,000.

One recent affordable housing project announced in Los Angeles is $138-million
project in Downtown that will provide 278 new units of
affordable housing—or $496,403per unit.

“There is a disconnect among politicians, leaders and officials and the
community when it comes to the reality of the homeless situation in Los
Angeles and possible solutions. As it stands now, ‘affordable’ units
simply cost too much to reasonably or effectively address the crisis we
are facing,” added Weinstein. “We cannot build our way out of this
heartbreak. And too many people get a piece of the pie—developers,
builders, lawyers, the city treasury, in the form of fees and
permits—all have a hand in the till before it trickles down to the
‘lottery winner’ of a tenant who is lucky enough to get placed in one of
these photo-op flats. Nothing should cost more than $200,000 and 50% of
such units should be $100,000 and below."

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS
organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over
855,000 individuals in 39 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin
America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn
more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org,
find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth
and follow us @aidshealthcare.

1 The purchase price for the 27-room Sunset 8 Motel
was $4.6 million, or $170,370 per room or unit.2 The
purchase price for the Madison Hotel was $7,575,000, (the
parking lot was $450K – total $8,025,000.00 less a repair credit of $25K
and a donation of $50K to AHF – net price $7,950,000) or approximately
$36K per room or unit.